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Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Rachael Johns: So… who exactly are THE DEACONS OF BOURBON STREET?

In May 2014, I went to the Romantic Times conference and
roomed with two of my favourite writing people – Megan Crane and Maisey Yates.
It was my first ever US convention/conference and I had no idea what I was
getting myself into. In fact, it was my first ever time to America at ALL and
it just happened to be in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Aside from the
fact there were some amazing sweet things called beignets there that I HAD to
try, I didn’t have any idea of what RT or New Orleans would have in store for
me. But making the decision to go turned
out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done.

If I hadn’t gone to RT in New Orleans and hadn’t roomed with
the fabulous Megan and Maisey, I wouldn’t be one of the Deacons of Bourbon
Street bitches? You see, wandering around the French Quarter, the three of us
fell totally in love. Not with each other (of whom we are already enamored
enough) but with everything that encapsulates the place! We couldn’t take
enough photos, visit enough boutiques and galleries, eat in enough restaurants,
people watch for long enough. Everything from the history to the buildings to
the quirky residents that currently inhabit the French Quarter captured our
imaginations and we knew we HAD to write books set there.

I think we all imagined we’d go home and come up with our
own single title stories that somehow included New Orleans, but then one editor
mentioned to Maisey that since we got along so well and obviously LOVED the
place, maybe we should write a co-authored series set there. We jumped on that
idea straight away and somewhere during our brainstorming we decided it would
be fun to write about an outlaw motorcycle gang. Now, the others will tell you
that this was MY idea but I adamantly deny that. Needless to say, we decided we
couldn’t write a biker series without our other friend Jackie Ashenden (http://www.jackieashenden.com)
who had already written a biker dude and without a doubt wrote far hotter and
far grittier than any of us.

Of course, Jackie said ‘Yay, I’d love to be involved,’ and
we went from there. We brainstormed an overarching mystery plot and a red-hot
sexy biker hero for each of us. I think the wonderful thing about a
multi-author series is that we all bring our unique ideas and voices to the
series. Although we each wrote one book, there was a lot of discussion about
the characters and plot before and during the writing.

Each book has a different flavor – reflective of the writer
and the different heroes and heroines. Megan Crane has this theory that we are
each our biker heroes but you’ll have to read the books to see what she means.

Just a few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to meet up again,
re-live our memories of the French Quarter, have dinner with our lovely editor
(see picture below) and discuss the possibility of writing another series
together!

If I could only have one favorite series, it would probably be Nora Roberts' "Born In..." If I could have two, I'd add Kristan Higgins' Blue Heron books. And if I could have three, it would be any one Mary Balogh wrote. Now it sounds as though I might need to have four.